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The Daily TIP: IRGC Commander: Iran Will Never Allow Inspections of Military Nuclear Sites

Posted by Tip Staff - August 14, 2017

IRGC Commander: Iran Will Never Allow Inspections of Military Nuclear SitesIn Defiance of UN Security Council Resolution, Iran Votes to Boost Missile BudgetWhite House Sending Envoys to Middle East to Facilitate Talks With No PreconditionsOracle Selects Israeli Startups for Accelerator Program in Tel Aviv

IRGC Commander: Iran Will Never Allow Inspections of Military Nuclear Sites

A top commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that Iran will never allow a foreign nation, especially the United States, to inspect its military sites to ensure compliance with the nuclear deal, Iran's semi-official Fars News reported.

Brigadier General Hassan Salami, the Lieutenant Commander of the IRGC said in television interview Saturday night, "Both the great Iranian nation and the US and the world should know that if there is only one demand in the whole world which will be rejected and if there is only one wish that will be taken to the grave, it is the Americans' demand to visit our military centers."

In a similar vein, last Monday IRGC Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh responded to President Donald Trump's demand that inspectors be allowed into Iranian military sites, "The response is clear. We will not give them such a permission." Hajizadeh added, "Both the Zionists and the reactionary regional regimes understood that we have certain redlines and will resist to safeguard the revolution and will not withdraw."

“This rejection violates the JCPOA," Mark Dubowitz executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies wrote, "We should test it sooner rather than later."

In an interview with NPR following the agreement on the nuclear deal in 2015, then Secretary of State John Kerry said that Iran's refusal to allow inspections of military sites would constitute a "material breach of this agreement."

In Defiance of UN Security Council Resolution, Iran Votes to Boost Missile Budget

Iran’s parliament voted overwhelmingly on Sunday to increase the country’s budget for its ballistic missiles program and the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), in a direct challenge to new sanctions announced by the Trump administration against the Islamic Republic earlier this month.

Some lawmakers shouted “Death to America” after the bill, which seeks "to counter America's terrorist and adventurist actions," was passed by a total of 240 politicians out of 244 that were eligible to cast their vote.

Iran’s missile program and foreign operations of the paramilitary IRGC troops will be boosted by an additional $520 under the new law, which calls on the government of President Hassan Rouhani to prepare a strategy for challenging the "threats, malicious, hegemonic and divisive activities of America in the region."

"The Americans should know that this was our first action," said parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani after announcing the overwhelming majority vote for the new legislation.

In early August, the U.S. Congress passed a bill signed by President Donald Trump to impose new sanctions on Iran over its missiles program, in violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, which calls on the Islamic Republic not to undertake ballistic missile-related activities. The step followed Iran testing a rocket that can deliver satellites into orbit.

State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert stated earlier this month that the U.S. considered Iran’s ballistic missile launches to be “a violation of UNSCR 2231.”

White House Sending Envoys to Middle East to Facilitate Talks With No Preconditions

Three top administration officials are headed to the Middle East to consult with Israel, the Palestinians and other Arab states in efforts to restart negotiations with no preconditions, a U.S. official announced Friday.

Presidential adviser Jared Kushner, who is also President Donald Trump's son-in-law, U.S. Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt, and Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell are planning to travel to the Middle East later this month to try to make progress on bringing peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

The administration "has not sketched any plans for negotiations but has dropped insistence on a separate sovereign Palestinian state as the goal," The Washington Postreported.

A senior administration official told the Post that Kushner, Greenblatt, and Powell will visit Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and several Arab states. In addition to Israel and the Palestinians, Trump will also enlist the help and advice of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Qatar, in an effort to bring peace.

Trump has made it clear in meetings with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that the Palestinians need to stop inciting and encouraging terror. In a joint appearance with Abbas in Bethlehem in May, Trump said, "Peace can never take root in an environment where violence is tolerated, funded and even rewarded."

Run by members of Oracle’s R&D team, the Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator program provides mentoring from technical and business experts, state-of-the-art technology, a co-working space, and access to Oracle customers, partners and investors, as well as startup peers from the other Oracle Cloud Accelerator programs in Bangalore, Bristol, Delhi–NCR, Mumbai, Paris, São Paulo and Singapore.

Selected from hundreds of applicants, the five Israeli startups in the initial class are: 3DSignals, a predictive maintenance solution that analyzes the sounds emanating from machines and alerts when they are about to malfunction; Nsof Networks, whose Cloud Native Network-as-a-Service delivers global networking infrastructure as a service to enterprise IT organizations; Bonobo, an AI platform that captures and analyzes all textual and conversational data produced by organizations, producing real-time actionable insights; Zoomin, an enterprise SaaS company that disrupts the way customers interact with product documentation; and Toonimo, a smart audio-visual guidance platform that simplifies online service or processes to create a better customer experience and increased ROI.

“We were thrilled with the initial response from the local startup community — all tremendously tenacious and all addressing big global opportunities. We look forward to working with the five innovative, talented startups in our inaugural class,” said Reggie Bradford, Senior Vice President of Oracle’s Startup Ecosystem and Accelerator.